A nice bonus is that I now have 2 Nerf Club points!
I removed it from the package, loaded five of the six darts which were included, and pulled the chord... I laughed, because it was fun! Ranges were 20-30 feet, with the last one actually flying the farthest. So naturally, I set about to see what is inside, and do what I can to improve it.
Pretty standard, really. Looks like the little nubs on the chord actually rotate the cylinder, and then draw the plunger back, before losing grip and releasing the plunger. Simple enough. The plunger tube is almost as large as a Nightfinder's, though air flow is severely hampered by the tiny hole in the cylinder, the slightly less tiny hole in the tube, and the stupid pegs. Oh, how I hate the pegs.
Disassembled the plunger, standard old blaster stuff. While it's all apart, make sure to enlarge the hole in the tube to match the opening in the foam.
I began with improvement of the plunger seal. Now, I've described this a couple times before, but this is the first time I've added pictures. First, we cut a 3/8" strip of old bike inner tube. Handy stuff, that. And one tube goes a LONG way. You can see how much I have left, and that is after cutting a bunch of washers out, a bunch of bands to organize nearly every electrical cord in the shop, and fixing a few plungers.
Take your loop, and cut it, so you have your strip. Then take your plunger head...
and wind the strip around the inside.
It may be easier if you fold the outside edge back.
Now, this rubber is just a cheap way to take up space and not use too much electrical tape. Which is next. While holding the rubber strip wound relatively tightly, add electrical tape until it gently flexes the outside edge out.
Now you can reassemble the plunger, making sure to lubricate the entire plunger tube and head. The spring could certainly be heavier, but I left it in for now, because I didn't want to over stress the mechanism until I was certain how the other upgrades would perform.
The next step is replacement of the barrels. The turret cylinder is held together with only one screw in the back, so it comes apart easily. No glue or anything!
Next, we need to remove the pegs from the back section. The plastic was pretty brittle, so be careful. I used a razor blade, which worked, though you can see where one peg broke a little bit of the base too. That's okay, though... Because you also need to enlarge the holes to match the holes in the foam. Sorry, no pic of that part...
I then sanded the surface of the back plate, just to give our adhesive a little more surface area bit in to.
We need five barrels of your material of choice. I used thick wall PETG, which fits very nicely in the original holes in the front of the turret. OMC's thin wall PETG fits though it is a little tight. You would need to drill the holes out for CPVC, though.
Insert the barrels in to the turret, adding some sealant around the base of each one. Then simply align the tabs on the base and cylinder,and press together. Then reinstall the screw in the back, and let it completely dry.
After it's all dry, you can reassemble everything in to the shell, and then go test it. I ended up getting 35-45 feet on average. I like this little blaster, it was quite a bit of fun. I say was because the absolute FIRST time I handed it to my son, the chord broke. Poor kid thought it was his fault, too. It was a clean break, so I am sure that it was just mechanical fatigue from sitting in the same position for ten years. I am pretty sure that I can fix it, or maybe bypass it. The break is far enough to the back end that it will actually shoot all five shots before it runs out of chord, so I may be able to run a cable or leather strap to the end, just so I can reset the mechanism. I'll post an update when I figure out what to do.
Huh. I seem to be missing some pics. I will see if I can locate them.
Edited by Draconis, 03 December 2008 - 08:02 PM.
